Roadies in the Midst - Touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers - Ponderings

Day 451 - Where did I go?

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:29:09 -0700

My computer crashed, the worldwide rocket ship I was riding while blasting through cities has come to a near screeching halt as I find myself road-rash skidding - POOM. Here is me. No longer a motion full roadie, merely another of many humans that stands in lines and alternates between being annoyed at lead foot drivers and resisting the desire to honk at red lights.

Without motion I no longer can describe the blur from a first hand perspective leaving me only with the remnants of enlightenment or damage caused by the journey. I spend my friday night wavering between solitude appreciation and debating winding myself up into taking a stab at finding an enjoyable interaction and decide to make a solo dinner of habenero turkey burgers in a cast iron skillet. One pound lean ground turkey, one slice of diced onion, 1/4 diced bell pepper (yellow), some garlic powder, salt, pepper, one whole minced habenero pepper and a handful of granulated feta cheese. Mash, burger-ize and pan fry in a tiny amount of olive oil. It is all about knowing when to stop and done right, all good. Listening to the sounds of heat and watching the textures evolve, I try to time when to flip, too soon and she will break apart captain, too late and the burger will hermetically bond itself to the non-non-stick pan.

Then suddenly I stumble upon the thought "The world is dirty, and we poison ourselves in our efforts to to create the 'clean' illusion." For a flash, it all fits, landfills overflowing and smoggy skies from manufacturing and transporting millions of plastic "clean" water carrying bottles. Priests attempting to be so clean and pure they end up in jail as child molesters and the hydrogenated, modified whatever that is in all our food so it stays as "fresh" as possible even though it becomes the opposite of healthy. "Yuck, dirty insects, quick, put poison on our food." There are many debates about good and bad and various things and for the moment at least, it appears so simple. If you have a box gray sand and pull out all the light or dark bits, all that will be left is the other. It is that polarization, the acceleration towards dividing our infinitely gray world into the much more palatable black and white of "This is clean, this is dirty. This is good, this is bad." But perhaps the reality is that it is similar to Newton's conservation of energy law, "good" and "clean" are not created, they are only temporarily separated from "bad" and "dirty" counterparts. I ponder as I wash the raw turkey remnants from a bowl now clean while soapy turkey water flows down a drain to an unknown destiny.

Long ago a friend named Davo said something that I never forgot. "Many things in this world are like air conditioners, the cooler it gets on the inside, the hotter it gets for everyone else." He was referring at the time to the United States versus the rest of the world, mid Reagan era. Except it even seems bigger than that and impacts us on all levels as we all seem to eventually leave the air conditioning at the end of the day and sit there fighting that irresistible desire to honk at red lights.

From the inside out I view, as we all do and I often wonder if everyone feels as disconnected as I. And if so, how they are so good at masking it? Perhaps I should watch more TV

but I keep forgetting, in the mean time I will sift through the pile of things that I want to remember to do, so I don't regret later.

And oh, where did I go? I guess, everywhere but here. "One more, one more!" Oh ok, last one, these roller coaster's are fun, one last ride before the park closes.

On another note, as one curtain closes another opens. How excited am I? I have signed on as a consultant/designer for a large sound manufacturer and looks like we are going to be building some Ratty designs! A dream come true and cool stuff too! Secretly in my other life I have been designing cool soundie stuff between being transported and bloggery posts and now if all goes as I dream it to be, the thoughts will become real tangible entities. I will post more soon with details once the company releases the info publicly. As I slip away from pondering into personally following those same humanly ways of sorting through the sand box reforming the bits of the world around into things for a differing purpose.

Dave Rat

Day 411 - Everything Kills Yet Nothing is Toxic

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 01:28:00 -0700

I never cease to be amazed at how willingly people offer opinions about things they have no clue about yet they speak with a such bravado in their false authority? While pondering one of those gaseous blabbering's as I read while electro-wandering the thoughts carried me to a viewpoint illuminating that aspect of of our world where humans scurry from a plethora of fears. It must be disconcerting for them to realize that water is toxic. What is it that inspires that useless desire to form a black and white overlay upon our lives? Pure clean water kills and radioactivity is abundant in red bricks from which we build our houses, yet only in debatably harmless amounts. Can it be true that snake venom sufficiently diluted it is healthier than overeating an abundance of leafy greens? Will we continue to fail to realize that it is not the substance but the quantity and balance that perpetuates life and continue to be cursed with propagating confusion? Of course we will as the ultimate quandary is that everything kills and the primary cause of death is life itself. Oh, and speaking of red bricks and houses, check it out:

Looking down at the full "pre-modified" state. Notice the wall of blockage.

Bye bye wall, Bye bye all the walls and see we do and hello big beams.

And then came the cool bio friendly blue stuff to add the coziness.

Bye bye bad 70's fireplace that would be more at home in a porn movie and hello drywall with bull nose corners.

A bit o primer paint really cleans things up.

Add in a simple concrete fireplace surround and some acid stain on the floor and it is getting closer.

And hopefully someday, I dream of having a place to sit!

Dave Rat

Day 409 - Save the World From Us

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:33:00 -0700

**** Ponderings ****

Is it a quandary to impact the environment by having a tremendous amount of humans gather for a giant rock show to promote social awareness of the impact that a the tremendous number of humans have on the environment? Is the event itself in it's magnitude directly undermining it's own cause? Busses, trucks, planes and trains haul masses of bottled water and beer drinking humans to create a mind bending amount of trash to promote reducing trashing our world. The hypocrisy was most purely embraced in full ignorance by Duran Duran's singer's attempt at self elevation when he walks on stage spewing "Raise your hand if did not arrive here on a private jet." As if somehow throwing spikes at the fellow performers gathering for a common cause would have some sort of positive spin.

More specifically, I arrived on an overnight bus ride of misery and left on a private jet to get to the next show that same night, with the rest of Peppers core crew. No other other way we could make the jump to Denmark for the show we had booked long before the Peppers were personally asked to support Live Earth by Al Gore. We all jumped many hoops. So one could ponder, would it have been better that Peppers not play? Was the environmental impact of transporting the band and crew to the event excessive compared to the effort towards of catalyzing humans to take up the mission of walking more softly upon the planet we tread? If the answer is yes, could than same response be applied to the event as whole and therefore it should never have existed?

First I must say that I fully support treating the world we live with care and respect. Whether it is global warming, decimation of other species or obliteration of the key components that necessitate healthy life, I feel that care and respect should be considered in all avenues. What concerned me was not the events existence but it's lack of thoroughness. Cool concepts like "return 10 empty cups to get a free beer to promote recycling, reduce the mess to be cleaned" that they do at the Werchter Festival in Germany and how Roskilde pays cash for empties, was sadly missing. The laminate lanyards they gave us said they were made from 100% recycled fiber while the laminates themselves were plain old plastic instead of cool recycled paper. How much of the festival was powered by renewable power? All I could find was that the web site servers were, the festival itself, while we just plugged into the wall of course. In the back of my mind grows the thought the true change will grow from innovation in grass roots events that focus on awareness while maintaining near zero impact, setting an example rather that just preaching what "you" should do.

Perhaps to truly solve the issue we face, we would have to also address the speed at which humans mass produce more humans at alarming rates. Where do we draw the line on whether we attack each other or work together and how effective we can be at slowing down the inevitable, all remains to be seen. Regardless though, there should be little doubt that less splattering of the planet sure beats screwing it up faster.

**** End Ponderings ****

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

So I am on little sleep, nearly all our gear in another country, I am mixing on a console I just met an hour ago and an EV X-Line PA that I have never used on a large event. Oh well, no biggie, it's just for hundreds of thousands of humans all over the world. What better time to play it safe? So I ordered in the best mixing board I could think of to handle the job. This is a big huge show and we all know that big huge shows must have big expensive complicated mixing boards so the soundman looks cool. Unless of course the soundman desired something small, fast, dependable, predictable and easy to setup. Hmmm, I see a $200,000 dollar Midas XL8, three $100,000 Digico D5's and $70,000 Yamaha PM 5D laying around the mix area here, all high end digital desks. Somewhere around here is my baby, aha, there it is on the left:

Oooooh, wow! Look at that $15,000 analog Midas Verona! Though the show could have gone smoother for me, given the fact that I had absolutely nothing in my favor, including loosing most of what little line check before I actually was given working snake lines and no time to play music through the PA so I could tune it, things went relatively well and compared to the various forms of trains wrecks I heard leading up to Peppers, it fell well into the window of good enough.

*** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

And off we go...

But not before grabbing a few pics

Meet Roadie Bryan, an awesome sound engineer and a long time friend, he mixes Foo Fighters, hanging with Roadie Daniel.

And just because I can, the gratuitous glamour shot with the guy that introduced the Peppers

Hurry up, we rocked and now we got to roll. Hour to the airport, two hour flight, 30 minute drive to the gig plus we lose an hour in the time change. Roskilde, the last show of this tour leg, here we come!

Dave Rat

Day 406 - Dresden - And how about a Rock Show. for a Change?

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:18:00 -0700

**** Ponderings ****

Survival is a choice heavily inspired by instinct.

**** End Ponderings ****

Which brings about the subject of food. To eat is a choice which is highly complementary to survival of the individual. Sleeping and breathing kind of fall into this same general category. There are few general "rules of thumb" which seem to apply globally to things that are alive. If you keep them "Well fed, well slept and secure in the fact that the next breath will be available in a relatively reasonable amount of time, they tend to be more fun to hang out with than if you take those things away.

**** Legendary Delectable Euphoria ****

That is why the celebration culinary delights called "catering" really pushes us roadies to new heights of exuberance. Come feast your eyes upon this mouth-watering collection of pure temptation:

Though I realize that when something is so beyond tasty, there is no need to go further, yet still, yes there was more

**** End Legendary Delectable Euphoria ****

Some people just absolutely love to look at knobs. So here today I present you none other than a collection of knobs for those that seek the view to bask in. Long awaited, much requested and not forgotten, here we have the in it boldest "show all" Mr. Silver Jubilee amp to left and what we call "rig #1" in soundman speak

Stepping up next to show it all in full glory, we have the big boy weighing in at 200 tubular watts, Mr. Marshall Major

Not to be left out but still left out of all but 1 or two songs each night, rig #3, the powerhouse driven by Gretch, the twin brother to rig #1, show your stuff Mr. Other Silver Jubilee

**** Roadie Research Segment ****

Roadies, like other critters don't always get along harmoniously. Competition for desirable mates, feeding grounds and other important roadie issues often drive roadies to spar and mark their turf. Also, on occasion, in order for roadies to gain status in the herd, it is necessary to elevate oneself at the expense of another roadie. In roadie speak that 'stepping on another' to elevate is commonly referred to "throwing under the bus."

Fortunately, Peppers roadies are much more civilized than that and know how to work out their differences in more practical ways.

**** End Roadie Research Segment ****

Yep, back to the dome stage. Fortunately someone put a pole in the middle of the audience area.

Light it up, make it loud!

Tear it down, drive away. Deja Vu, Deja Vu, Deja Vu.

Off to where ever we are headed. oh joy!

Dave Rat

P.S. In case you were wondering, the 4th of July is not much of a party in Germany.

Day 405 - Poland - Beyond the Worst Thing You Can Imagine

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:32:00 -0700

Today for our little journey we are going to head into the depths of horror. A true mind crushing surreal nightmare.that defies comprehension. Why, you wonder? Well, to remember. To remember never to underestimate the ability of humans to embark gung ho in the worst of possible directions. To remember that human perception slides with the times and the environment that we are immersed in. To remember to look around at the world we live today and perhaps spot the seeds of bad ideas taking root and to reject blindly accepting them as an acceptable "normal." There was a time not to long ago where a group of humans thought that to slaughter their brethren as one would kill giant insects, was somehow a good idea. In the world today, that time is still now and may always be but history knows of none that has ever pushed the mass extermination of humans to a more clinical, cold, horrific level.

Today roadies Scott, Sat Hari, Veronica and honorary roadie Emma B, head to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp and where the home and office of one Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß was located.

"Rudolf Höß was one of history's greatest mass murderers, the architect and SS Kommandant of the largest killing center ever created, the death camp Auschwitz, whose name has come to symbolize humanity's ultimate descent into evil. Responsible for exterminating 2,5 million people in World War II, he was a mild-mannered, happily married Catholic who enjoyed normal family life with his five children despite his view of the crematoria chimney stacks from his bedroom window." http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2001/11/25/stories/2001112500210400.htm

"Work Makes (one) Free"

"About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, with about 300 attempts successful. A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others. If someone did manage to escape, the SS would kill ten random people from the prisoner's block. This was a quite persuasive method to discourage escape attempts."

"Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chamber to accommodate 2000 people at one time whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: We had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes, but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz.

I understand English as it is written above. The above statements are true; this declaration is made by me voluntarily and without compulsion; after reading over the statement I have signed and executed the same at Nuremberg, Germany, on the 4/5/1946. - Rudolf Höß."

And for those whom wish to see photos that are so grim they are hard to process for their true intesity http://www.oskarschindler.com/Albums5/album.htm

A doorway built by humans that existed in an incomprehensible perception realm. I try and grasp a state of mind that could possibly swirl everyday humans into executioners that carry out orders and laugh as children and mothers and doctors and tailors and wanderers and are gassed and shaved while pillaging their belongings and selling their hair for mattresses. The alien concept is so surreal it feels as if it could never occur, not here, not there, not anywhere. But it did and it can again as we humans are not immune from a bad idea spreading amongst us as a mind-virus infecting the masses, crystallizing our fears into manifestions of hatred.

Wary, I am so wary of anything or anyone that utilizes fear to perpetuate their objectives, as thought-structures that are built from fear can not help but be permeated with hatred. It is so pathetic that it proves irresistible for our false leaders to shovel out piles of fear to manipulate us, the idiot masses. "Danger danger, quick give me your money and soul so I can empower my greed and validate my twisted illusions." So transparent yet it fools the fools everytime.

Dave Rat

Day 400- June 27th - Udine

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:06:00 -0700

**** The Background of a Ponder ****

So a few days back or three, I was sitting with some friends and wine and as the night progressed I found that every word I spoke was met with disagreement from a long time friend. Everything I said was wrong, regardless of what it was. I even tried agreeing with him and that was wrong as well. Unfinished statements were wrong. I found that I was inherently wrong by default. To argue my position was uselessness as the other party had a predetermined and an unalterable perspective that I was incorrect, regardless of any facts, feelings or indications otherwise. Then the parallel's drifted in. Religious conversations where the other person bases their stance on purely believing without the need for a connection to an experienced or repeatable event. Political debates where underlying biases hinged on unalterable past experiences determine the stance taken. Nationality pride where staunch boldness and slogans of greatness are firmly planted in the fact that a person just happened to pop out of mom on one side of an imaginary border line or another. Racial variations where we are what we are so since change is not an option, we hunker down in our defensive or offensive positions. To discuss whether a religion, political party, country of race is more right or wrong than another with a passionate participant, which we all are on some level, is a precarious adventure indeed, so...

Rather than get wrapped up in the senselessness adversary, I listened and watched and thought. Then it dawned on me that perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps he is right and everything I say or am about to say is wrong, at least on some level or perspective. In that moment, right then, there was not a single thing I could say that was correct. That thought then spread like light to encompass all thoughts everywhere and always and illuminated a perspective that perhaps no one has ever been truly right nor ever will be, as someone will always have the ability to disagree.

And at that point the feeling of friction stopped and puzzlement turned to smile as I wandered of to my hotel room in all my wrongness and feeling great.

**** End - The Background of a Ponder ****

Italy feel refreshing. Mouthwatering. How can a whole country so perfectly and completely master the art of making delicious food? So off the roadies head for a stroll and a meal.

Ooooooh, looks like he got an "owie"

Everyone one was drinking these crazy looking orange drinks, so we curiosity inspired us to follow suit.

That is me on the left, you can always tell cause I am the one with the big nose. Next over is Roadie Tracy, beloved roadette, Lyssa B and Lampi Scott who's new nick name is "Dark Overlord." Our newest bus #2 roadette is Michelle who came out to play the roadie games with us again and finally Lampi Chad who seems to have acquired the nick name "Weak Underling." Am not quite sure who came up with the names but it makes for awesome radio chatter.

Over the walkee talkee's at the gig:

"Dark Overlord for Weak Underling"

"Go for Weak Underling,"

"Yes, we have a situation out here, need you immediately, copy?"

"Copy Dark Overlord, Weak Underling on the way"

Signing off for today, I leave you with a bit of graffiti I found on a wall.

Dave Rat

Day 398 - June 25th - The Battle for Right and Wrong

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:48:00 -0700

Day off in Serbia

**** Super Ponder 300 ****

Of course, life is just a matter of perspective. Maybe I am sitting here happily bobbing along my merry roadie way and some tragic event like loosing my sunglasses has befallen upon me three yesterday's past, of which I am yet unaware, so my world is still smiles. But now as I frantically search and realization slips in, my life slips in to chaos as the barrage emotional loss overwhelms me, I really liked those sunglasses and replacing them will involve remembering which gas station I purchased them and hoping they still have another pair after I figure out where that gas station was located in Australia. The perspective of whether this is truly a terrible event or an insignificant blip will vary from human to human. "Realization" was responsible for shifting my perspective, but the world around me remains unaffected. Expanding upon this thought-line and adding in the concept that "nothing is ever truly exact nor ever can be" sets the stage for some curious ponderings. Where exactly does land end and the sea begin with the tides and waves and all? Is this exactly a gallon of gas or perhaps a molecule less or more. I read the other day about how much gasoline expands when warm. A gallon cold gas will drive your car farther than warm gas because a gallon can be more or less than itself. Gas stations in colder areas have heaters, while hot area stations sell hot gas resulting in less gas per dollar. Temperature, motion, evaporation, deterioration, velocity and just the fact that an object exists, all play a part in the creating the impossibility of true exacting measure.

Whether we like it or not, every numeric, verbal or written description is merely an approximation that can be debated on some some level and if it can be legitimately debated, does this not make it an opinion? Does this not unravel everything we say or think into squirming mess of differing opinions and nothing we encounter or perceive being truly "true," if you look closely enough? The existence of "truth" itself is a matter of perspective and my personal set of truths evolves and varies, from every other individual's or group's set of truths. I believe it is highly probable that there is not a single truth that is truly universal. By this I am referring to the existence of a thought or concept that every single individual would unanimously agree to be "true." Proving a truth is universal by harvesting the opinions of all humans simultaneously would be quite difficult to the point of infinitely prohibitive. Conversely, proving a truth is not universal is actually quite simple, just find someone that disagrees. If you have to disqualify anyone due to age, race, religion, gender or even your opinion of their sanity level, then poof, not universal. In a world where humans strap bombs to themselves and run into crowded places, it does not take a rocket scientist to envision that finding humans who will disagree with every possible thought are most likely running around somewhere. In fact, now that I ponder it, there are more things humans universally disagree on than agree. Hmmm I wonder if there is such thing as a universal falsity? Naw, that couldn't work because that would in turn create the universal truth of us all agreeing on the universal falsity.

So where does that leave us if we were to accept that everything we think and believe is wrong in someone else's perspective and therefore not definitively true? Well, if the logic so far is accepted then here are a few possible conclusions. We are either:

A) All individually always wrong on some level in everything we do so we can not possibly ever do anything "right" or

B) We need to chop some humans out of the equation and relegate them to being irrelevant so we can establish a tangible foundation of "rightness" by which to judge all of those that are wrong and then tout how we live our lives correctly or

C) We could accept the perplexing concept that something can be simultaneous right and wrong at the same time.

"A" appears not to be a very useful perspective, as being wrong all the time about everything makes progress and decision making a bit tough, plus it is counter intuitive because there are many worldly things that can be repetitively demonstrated to have a high degree of rightness.

"B" involves cutting a bunch humans out of the mix and while it is a tempting and commonly implemented angle, it has a bit of a downside in that surprisingly, the humans that get relegated to irrelevance seem to exhibit a strong lack of enthusiasm at there position of being forever wrong that was created by others that have self-elevated themselves to a level rightness. Compound that with the likelihood that the "wrongies" carry the perspective that they are actually the ones that are right and you now have a recipe for a world locked in turmoil and fighting between various entities that feel justified in their actions, kind of like we have now.

Finally, who would be so silly as to embrace the absurd concept "C" that something can be both right and wrong at the same time? As demonstrated below:

Alfred the Right: "Wow, I want to tell you all, the fact is that today is really really hot!"

Far away little voice named Eric in the back with a Monty Python English accent: "No, it's not"

Red face evident Alfred "Excuse me, today is the hottest day on record, today is incredibly hot!"

Same Eric: "Today is not hot compared to molten lava, molten lava is incredibly hot"

Fortifying his position Alfred "Your an idiot"

Big eyed Eric "No, I'm not"

And on and on till the end of the world, The End.

Though this may seem on the surface trivial or absurd, pondering it a bit more deeply you may find that all alleged "facts" as we know them can be dismantled and every unresolved argument has little to do with the subject discussed but rather the differing perspectives the arguers have chosen. Since no perspective can be truly proved right or wrong, to discuss anything with a goal of gaining ground, a common perspective must first be agreed upon or naturally taken by the participants. Perhaps it is true that all perspectives are correct and nothing is truly wrong, yet life does suggest that some perspectives and beliefs are more useful, enjoyable, harmonious and life-compatible than others. Denying the effects of gravity may not be a very useful perspective and attempting to validate it by stepping out of a hot air balloon or attempting to walk on water may have less than a convenient outcome.

The concept that everyone, no mater how right they are, is automatically always wrong on some level, I think is really interesting. This duality of being right and wrong simultaneously sets the stage for humans to both accept religion and science even though they each prove the other wrong. More importantly it also creates the potential for everyone to accept each other's differing points of view while holding their own and the concepts of "right" and "wrong" themselves become relegated to irrelevance. Leaving us to enjoy navigating the discussions over which concepts are more useful by which to lead our lives, which ideas are repeatable, which patterns we can depend and what things we decide to do anyway because we enjoy the sensation regardless that it defies logic or explanation.

And me? I guess I am a "Useful-ist" so I shovel all the crap that must be believed because it was spoken or written and has no corroborating life-sensical reality into the mind-closet of possibilities that I do not live my life by unless a real world credibility event earns them a home in my inner perspective-structure.

Anyway, I just want to say, hey look, I have a whole bunch of money, I am rich!

"No your not rich! that is only like $200 US, you could not even buy a quarter of a plane ticket home with that"

"Well, shut up stupid head, I feel rich anyway and I don't care what you say, and besides $200 US goes a long way here and as best I can tell it is one of the few places left where the US dollar is not working it's way to worthless due to Shit-Neck-the-Incompetent running the White House"

"Hey, he is a good president, he is fighting for what he believes is right."

"Exactly!"

On a cheerier note, hey Scott wait up, let me grab a quick photo of you right over there.

And it was a hot day and nice for a wander about in Belgrade

Cool old-school carts, as Lampi Scott would say, "those are the real deal!"

"No they're not!" -- Just kidding. The Serbian's still rock the public water fountain in a big way!

Yumm, Iced Coffee! "Actually it is more like a coffee sunday"

Cool shoes, must be some sort of regional historic shoe as we saw them all over except on feet.

So I guess that's it for today or not, depending on how you look at it, oh well, who really knows anything anyway.

Dave Rat

Day 343a - As I Wander

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 01 May 2007 08:19:00 -0700

**** Ponderings ****

Great sound is just an opinion. As a sound engineer, it is very important not to forget that. Opinions are fluid and need no basis in fact or logic and with music, technically perfect often equates to boring, as the music world quickly discovered when drum machines were invented. There are humanoids that love and bask in the endless quest of capturing perfect recordings of classical music and connoisseur themselves into frenzy focusing on every detail. I have met and listened to a few of these "oh you have to hear this!" audiofoolery setups and sat there and closed my eyes and not once did I go "Holy shit! for a second there I thought an orchestra snuck in hear and started rocking out while I had my eyes closed." But what I did hear is something that was their opinion of amazing sound. And after all the hype and build up about how great it is, I find my focus riveted to finding the flaws, (but hey, I am a sound engineer, that's what I am supposed to do, right? Then I think, hmmm, what if I happened upon that same sound system in a pawn shop? I may go "Holy shit, it almost sounds as if an orchestra just snuck in here and and started rocking! How much for that stereo system?"

**** End Ponderings ****

So Coachella is has much to see and while in a wander. I found bikes, but nowhere did they go.

While I do enjoy a good bike ride and I am often quite happy to go nowhere, combining those two concepts at a music festival seems a bit less than attractive. These were not normal bikes though, well, actually they were normal bikes but they did something cool. See the little motor to the belt? Ever had your cell phone go dead at a three day festival? Here is a way for you to pedal that power back into the phone, very cool and part of an energy awareness exhibit. So we wander on and in no particular order have look at some of what I see'd and did. Bjork played and had some cool keyboard sequencer thing that he moved little things around and sound came out that no one could figure out what it was.

I mixed Chuck Dukouski's band CD Sextet in the Gobi tent

So I got to mix the largest and smallest stages and is was cool to mix on at a Rat Trap System which I have not done forever. Say hey to Ian who came to visit and Chuck.

I got to meet DJ Shadow

and

Catering did not suck

We all know the importance of driving a sexy ride and when your cruising such sweet vehicle as my rickety Rat cart clearly was, irresistibility is just one of the perks.

The Peppers crew hotel was far from sucking as well.

Stability is formed by the third point in a triangle. Like on a bicycle, you go to park and trying to balance it on two wheels and poom, over it goes but if you put down the .......

kickstand, it makes it all better, badabing. And finally for today's installment, DJ's use headphones to do their deal and to get a nice clear powerful sound. Well, we also know that bigger is better, check out these headphones!

For you techies out there, that is four 18" speakers, four 15" speakers, four 10" speakers, two 2" horns - per side stereo tri amp with subs on an aux send. Turn that up and I bet it would make your heart tremble. I think we may have a new entrant into the **** Ingenious and Practical Sound System Design Award **** contest.

Ok, off to do things that humans do.

Dave Rat

Day 334 April 22nd - Auckland, The Rock Show

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:24:00 -0700

So I just realized that I skipped a blog of the last show of the tour and I had a few lonely pictures. Looks like Josh is going to be joining us on and off for more dates as well.

And Chad wearing my favorite jumpsuit for the grand finale

As each and every adventure eventually does, one thing is always for sure, it is bye bye time

Alone. Some people fear it, some savor it and whether you find it relaxing bliss or filled with anxiety, the fact remains that it is just a matter of perception and perhaps decision. And some alone's are better that others as I guess it really just depends on what is on your mind at the time.

Tomorrow I move my body home in airplanes so I can move my stuff in boxes so I can move the life I lived before I left to a new home. While the concept of moving excites me while the process fills me with dread. But I don't mind the dread because I am clear in the decision, so it just comes down to hacking away in the desired direction.

Dave Rat

Day 286 - March 5- San Antonio - Off Again

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:56:03 -0800

Some times life can be a blur and while sliding back and forth in bits of time as we take a look out the window of a jet landing in San Antonio through the eye of an open shutter camera, proof of that blurry life concept is confirmed.

Texas is a proud state that is not only large but there are also a lot of cows and steers. I have a theory that it is the generational teachings of ranching which involves the corralling of fairly dim witted animals by scaring them a little bit with dogs and cowboys with hats on horses and then putting some food in a fenced area that is equally effective for turning four legged critters into dinner as it is for corralling votes from the idiot American public that makes up a high percentage of our country. Hence, the only logical reason we could possibly have babbling corrupt lying dumb ass running our country.

Anyway, Texas is proud and big and was home of Davey Crocket and Jim Bowie (the knife) and past famous wars. Hey, the Alamo!

Remember the Alamo!

Hmmm, actually I don't have any recollection of it. But I do remember Texas police setting up drug inspection checkpoints and randomly searching vehicles for degenerates carrying "The Pot" as they crossed over the boarder (from Louisiana to Texas) into the lovely overheated terrain of of oil, ego, greed and red necks. Fortunately, I was not a partaker in "The Pot" but my heart and compassion goes out to those unfortunate enough to be on the wrong side of twisted mind with a gun or a badge. That was back in '86 though when I had an immature illusion that Americans actually had some sort of privacy rights, you know, that whole freedom silliness that is supposed to make us proud Americans. Since then and well over a million miles traveled about and around this ball we live called Earth, I have found my way to seeing things a bit more clearly, perhaps. Texas pride, American Pride, Shit kicker pride. Perhaps we are truly only as great as we are willing to be humble.

Anyway, don't get me wrong, every city, state and country has it's fair share of assholes and I don't really mind them too much as we need them around to keep the friendly humans from getting lazy. Oh, and the Mexican food here is all good, as are many of the people I know here and speaking of Mexican food the 24 hour place to eat here is called Mi Tierra

And this big friendly guy has rooster. Continuing the wander I yesterday head down to the sexily named AT&T Center where Peppers will play in a few days

to visit another Rat Sound tour called Taste of Chaos

Eight bands, rotating stage and six Rat crew on the road with another V-Dosc rig. It is desire and duty to visit fellow Rats whenever the opportunity permits. Greg, Steve, Tony, Taka, Baby Food and crew chief Tommy LBC are out there running the sound and boy that tour moves fast and hard. Five in a row shows, covering ground so fast it makes peppers tour look like it's barely moving. Basically it is the closest thing to a roadie boot camp you can find on larger yearly full production scale, possibly second only the grand daddy of gruel, The Warped Tour. It is a love hate thing and the people that tour and enjoy the travels of Taste and Warped are a special breed indeed and it where we find out what the crews are really made of with it being a starting point for many a successful sound career, oh and quite a few crash and burns as well.

This tour bus with trailer setup is not uncommon on higher density tours. It is pretty cool for bands that travel relatively light to be self contained, often with band, crew and all the backline gear as a single traveling unit.

For a show like this with 5 minute set changes, dual digital consoles is pretty much the way to go. All the bands' sound engineers store their settings and at the press of a button are ready to rock. Yes, digi boards are not my favorite but neither is the sound of an MP3 player, the issue is, sometimes it is just too inconvenient to carry a live band in my pocket. This tour is running a pair of Yamaha PM5D's both out front and on stage.

The rotating stage has an "A" side and "B" side and the is a console pair for each. While one band plays, the next is setting up behind and spinny spinny poof, there is the next band when the time comes to rock. Speaking of rock, here is a shot of 30 Seconds to Mars

Followed by The Used

Cool to watch and cool to see my fellow soundies in cities afar. Finally, look at that! How cute, the Texans have put cowboy hats on the bathroom signs, awwww

Ok, I will see y'all tomorrow and hey, how about we head right back over to the AT&T Center for a change, wheeee!

Dave Rat

Day 278 - Feb 25 - Home, CA

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:05:55 -0800

OK, I fly tomorrow and will get back on the sound and travel thing and in the mean time, since I am trapped in a ponder, I may as well share it.

**** Ponderings ****

Jack of all trades versus master of one. Whether to be the specialist or the multipurpose man.

It seems I constantly find myself cycling between round and around I go like a tennis ball caught in the spokes. Left to my own devices without outside influence, curiosity so easily draws me into hyper focus on projects that I drill into to the point of satisfaction or frustration, where I set it aside till a time when returning will bring further results. A way I have learned to tear myself away to maintain a grasp on my surrounding life, like trying to keep a multitude of spinning tops in motion. All too many times I have lifted my eyes from an immersion in the timeless sensation of being meditationally lost in a project, only to find my body starving, bills unpaid and loved ones pondering where I have wandered off to. Self imposed moderation. I force me to stop and look around, take a break, breath, remember to breath. The hangover is so much more bearable when fresh water is mixed in at regular intervals. Dilution, maintaining a perspective, holding onto a thread to find my way back and to remember not to get lost. Lost, as if anyone can actually truly mentally return to a spot they were once before now. As if going back was an option rather than an illusion. My efforts made to hold onto my bearings, pay attention and refine the surrounding skill-sets that allows me to adapt to the world around me in a more versatile way. Yet I wonder. I wonder when my value truly is. For that matter any of us. If there were two villages, one full of multipurpose villagers, each able to do nearly every task pretty darn well but not great and another village full of specialists where each person was a master at a particular craft and not so good at everything else, which village would I prefer to live? Which village would I more likely belong? It seems the small villages could start as multipurpose and as they grew, the specialists would increase. Do I allow me to be a specialist or strive to be versatilist? It seems society rewards the highest praise upon the specialists yet the specialists are also the least stable in a wide variety of situations. It of reminds me of biologists speaking of highly evolved specialized species and how they are so easily threatened with extinction. So, I just now do a Google search on "highly evolved specialized species extinction" and look what I find.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0147%28194303%2F04%2977%3A769%3C133%3ASAE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6&size=LARGE#abstract

Somehow though they seem to come up with humans specialized to the point of extincting themselves which very well may be the case but there is another layer. The creations by the hyper-specialized thinkers, defy time. Permeating all modern cultures are revered items and creations filling museums that are the result of absurdly time sponging efforts in various mind boggling directions. The unimaginable survival of what should be extinct. Incomprehensible creations, when each of our day today lives absorb our existences and yet somehow a some human finds time a spare decade to create monstrosity without forgetting to stay alive in the mean time. Decision decisions, hmmm.

http://sodarace.net/index.jsp

http://www.strandbeest.com/

**** End Ponderings ****

Ok, back to recuperating,

Dave Rat

Day 247 - Jan 25 - Washington DC

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:37:00 -0800

Well, yesterday on the day off I went on a mini adventure

with Lampi Scott as we so often do.

Here we are in what is currently the most powerful nation in the worlds' capitol

and all kinds of important and not so important and wasteful and meaningful and puzzling and world changing and greedy and altruistic and corrupt things happen here and a bunch of humans that run around this place have the power to shape the world in which we live in ways we cannot begin to imagine until upon us. Sometimes the shape of which they choose involves dragging the country into the quagmire of battling an ancient christian/muslim religious war in Babylon that was sucker shoved down the throats of the American public by using terror and fear by deceivingly cross linking it to the unrelated 911 event while all the while the entire calamity is embraced eagerly by money hungry corporations awaiting their share of war profiteering guaranteed by the "good ol' boy" alliances with those assholes in charge.

Oh well, for each wave that crashes upon the shore, it is just a matter of time before it recedes. Speaking of assholes in charge, at least the asshole that the US has currently propped up in the White House is just a little itty bitty toy joke putz of an asshole as far as assholes go. Assholes come in all flavors and sizes and today the adventure for Scott and I involves immersing ourselves in the sheer and utter horror that a real deal asshole can create

It is beyond surreal to try and comprehend the true magnitude of the perversion of fear and hatred taken to the most extreme levels.

Humans captured, robbed, stripped, shaved and gassed by the thousands in an extermination process so cruel and inhumane that I would choose the luxurious life of a swine in a slaughterhouse over the fate forced on to the Jews, gypsies, blacks and gays by the Nazi's in Germany.

One of the most interesting things to me was the reality that an average normal and regular person when immersed in an environment that is saturated with hatred can so easily become a part of unimaginable realities as if it is business as usual. The human trait that allows things like the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment to be applied on a grand scale and for a country to embrace a culture of social cleansing so easily, resulting in such a horrid outcome, should be a good indicator that much care should be taken when aligning with ideals that involve taking a stance against a group of people. Nationalistic pride fueling nightmares. So when I read the paper in the morning and see flashes of the simmering stew of hatred as it brews against the illegal aliens or hear outspoken religious bigots gay bashing or taking stances against dissimilar peoples I feel a stab of revulsion. What I like is the thought of balance and I would like that balance to exist in the form that the preachers of hatred be blessed with being the exact recipients of the hatred they preach.

--- Show Day ---

**** Highlight of the Day ****

Certain people have unforgettable inspirational and memorable impacts on the lives around them. My highlight today was to get to hang with some that I do not see that often but it does not dilute the magic they spread.

If you don't recognize them, that's OK, what they are called is no where near as important.

**** End Highlight of the Day ****

Gratuitous goofy Dave Rat photo

and last but far from least, zee rock band

The big sigh from,

Dave Rat

Day 244 - Jan 22 - Raleigh Show

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:40:00 -0800

The blog posts and days and shows have been all out of whack lately, I may have even lost a day or two in the confusion. I guess my attempt to catch up and blogoperate in a real time mode combined with switching to morning posting and recovering from pretty colored drinks has thrown a wrench at my illusions of clarity. Rather than attempt to fix the past, I will just add in an 'adaptor' post to line me up with the future.

To start with, lets pick up a few straggling lonely photos from the last day off, first, when I was getting all artsy fartsy with the reflection photo, I took a few others as well and the odd colors came from messing with the 'white balance' on the camera. Here is an un retouched photo where I used the pool water as the 'white' to set the cameras white balance

And the same settings with a pic of my arm

and the same arm after saturated color and a crop and rotation done in Macromedia Fireworks

and on the opposite side of the artsy fence, how about a raw production shot of the Cincinnati gig that looks almost like every other arena we do with a bit on an oversized scoreboard

When work needs to be done, it is common for roadies to take on various tasks of importance. With the arrival of our newly embraced Tiki theme, also has arrived a variety of essential delegated duties. My duty of course is blowing the palm tree up each day,

How about another meandering ponder?

**** Meandering and Boring Ponder Rant ****

Harley Davidson vs Apple Computers.

Both are corporations so I understand that ultimately they have profit motives as a purpose of existence and I am confident that the humans creating both companies were inspired by a dream of creating something unique and amazing. There are various reasons why either one may be arguably "better" business-wise than the other or whatever, but I don't care about all that. What is on my mind is the dynamics of the underlying sub currents on which these companies have chosen to base the way they sell their particular products. They both are recognizable "Made in America" brands that are culturally and passionately embraced by segments of the world population. Both brands are unique products that stand at the top of the quality heap in their particular sector. With Harley we have the 'shiny cool tough guy durable motorcycle' and with Apple, the 'peoples easy to use and attractive i-products.' Both make 'sexy' machines, both are status symbols in their realm. All of that, is all good and I enjoy the craftsmanship and quality angles that both companies incorporate but alas, there is a fundamental difference in the way these two entities financially retain the customers that embrace their products. The 'Harley Way' is to create a unique and desirable product that welcomes customization, alteration and invites the customer to embrace a plethora of aftermarket manufacturers that compete with accessories that Harley makes, should they chose to do so. A true open market, free will philosophy that empowers the buyer with unlimited freedom and possibilities limited only by the imagination of whomever wishes to contribute. The 'Apple Way' is to sell you a product that has been optimized to work seamlessly with other Apple products but also has bee cobbled in someway in order to minimize compatibility with non-Apple manufacturers. They have spent extra engineering hours designing ways to create these booby trap like incompatibilities and then pass the added costs on to the consumers. Once you buy in to the Apple Way, they do all in their power to hi-jack as much of your spending money as possible. In my eyes, Apple's business strategy represents an angle that strives to limit choices while Harley reinforces offering freedom of choice. Harley's success depends on offering quality products and accessories that are superior or more desirable than the multitude of welcomed competitors. Apple perpetuates by initially making a desirable product and then designing in incompatibilities and/or denying information that would allow competitors to make compatible accessories, whenever possible.

In my opinion the practice of designed in incompatibilities is just like SIM card locking where companies inject software that makes cell handsets unable to operate on competitive networks. Also the inkjet printer scam where they sell you a printer for $75 and the ink costs $50 for a replacement cartridge that is booby-trapped with a micro chip to block people from refilling it. Annoying, almost like giant versions of petty drug dealers giving away a samples to keep you coming back. Oh wait, did I say petty? Actually I meant international corporate conglomerate drug companies that give doctors free samples and keep huge masses of people dependant on various pharmaceuticals whenever possible. Predatory business baiting and corralling their human critters just as us humans do to sheep for their wool or cows for their milk. The company who can secure the most dependant humans wins. I accept that the predatory nature is an aspect of life and every snake needs to feed, mosquito and tigers do as well and I actually enjoy the dynamics and complexity of all of the interconnecting pieces that make up the balance of life and also I avoid unprotected exposure to hungry tigers, snakes and mosquito's whenever possible. Except perhaps if I am going fishing, hiking or many other adventures, in which case I make concessions, of course.

So all this rant was sparked when I read about Apple's new iPhone. Flashes of their incompatibility injections ran through my mind and reading further there was an interesting side angle. Turns out that there is some dispute over who owns the "iPhone" name and Cisco systems, a networking company focused on connecting computers together has an iPhone as well. It also turns out that Cisco Systems and Apple were in discussions over the iPhone name when Apple just vanished and released the product. Finally and my favorite part is that from what I have read it appears that Cisco's primary demand is that Apple make the iPhone interoperable with Cisco products, something that is very much against the grain of the "Apple Way" and that made me smile.

**** End Meandering and Boring Ponder Rant ****

Ok, shut up and do sound,

Dave Rat

Day 242 - Jan 20 - Cincinnati Show Day

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:37:44 -0800

Good Morning Sunshine's! For the last two days I have been deeply involved in doing whole bunch of not much at all. Decided to turn the TV on got bombarded with puzzling stories of people losing kids and finding them again, the racially polarizing quagmire of Lacrosse players and strippers and our bumblefuck of a president stumbling though his job much the same way he does with his words. I did enjoy the unexpected news that oil consumption by the industrialized world has dropped a smidge and is the first decrease in 20 years. High prices being the most likely cause. The bad news is that now the price will drop again and the natural human trait of self serving recklessness will most likely once again take over the decision process of the bulk masses and oil demand will rise again. Though all is not for naught as the price spike has triggered an irreversible trend of awareness and for the first time, low emission vehicle are hip and cool rather than tree hugger extremist. I want an electric car that is super quite, smooth and does not make a poison gas that will kill me if I leave my car running while parked in the garage.

**** Ponderings ****

While I am on the subject of tree hugging extremists, I am not one but I do try to be a human that makes an effort to minimize negative ecological impact. One of my quirky projects that I have been following for many years is that I do not purchase anything that utilizes non-rechargeable batteries. I make very few exceptions with smoke detectors and things that keep time and require a battery once every several years. I hate throw away batteries, poisonous chemical cylinders that sometimes last just a few days in the item intended combined with no organized global or national strategy whatsoever to recycle or minimize use. For the few legacy items I own that do take regular batteries, I use rechargeable's and there are a few things that I just have to make the concession. I had an interesting realization as well and that was that most things that I really use and depend on like my cell phone, laptop and camera, all come with rechargeable's and stuff that utilizes throw away batteries is usually the junk that ends up in the trash not long after the first 5 packs of batteries anyway. With toys and stuff for the kids it is a bit tougher but I explained it to them and they get it and they see the parallel between the items that are short lived and dependence on throw away batteries.

**** End Ponderings ****

Wandering around the hotel I heard voices. Not an unusual thing to hear except these were coming from inside the elevator shaft. Being the investigative and curious person I am I followed them pressing buttons to various floors until,way at the top, look what I found

There were humans putting metal wire ropes inside the elevator shaft. Plus the elevator was hanging from a big hook. Yikes! I ride them 'vators but it is a lot lees comforting seeing the guts. I just hope they put all them wires in the right spots. I actually was once in an elevator that 'fell' once. Luckily it was only a 6 foot drop before it slammed into the ground and stopped but it scared the shit out me as I was truly expecting it to go upwards slowly rather than downwards super fast. It was quite a while ago and we had loaded what I now believe to be "too much sound equipment" into it. Pressed the button, doors close and blam, this big spring comes down though the roof my body aches from smashing into a speaker box. I climbed on top of the elevator roof, opened the doors and we actually unloaded all the gear through the elevator roof. I do not recall if the elevator started working or if we just carried everything up the stairs after that.

Indian food with Scott, a trip to the pool

Some wanderings earlier

It is still a bit rough and need some clarifying but here is a draft

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

Line Arrays - Fad or Future

I get asked a lot of sound questions. Some are aimed at unraveling an understanding of a particular function, feature or concept while others are directed toward distilling my opinion on certain pieces of gear, methods or industry trends. The difference between the two query types is that there are relatively 'correct' answers to the former and the answers to the latter are just opinions that tend to be un provable. The answer to the question I was recently asked "Are line arrays truly better and here to stay or just the latest fad?" lays somewhere in between the two. Just in case you have been sleeping for a decade or are not a sound industry human, line arrays have taken the pro-touring industry over by storm. Nearly every manufacturer offers several line array choices and of the two manufacturers that I know of that do not offer them in their product line, both have been forced to take defensive vocal positions justifying why they do not. So, what is it about line arrays anyway that has positioned them to so completely dominate our industry? Stepping back and taking look, I see that there are several aspects that are quite clear and a one in particular that is not so apparent but the most important of all.

The method or design implemented by the various modern large scale sound systems can be subdivided into two primary approaches. First and quite common are systems that I will call cellular or zonal in the way they cover the audience. Zonal coverage refers to forming a cluster of directional speakers and dividing the audience area into many smaller zones or cells and then dedicating a speaker to providing sound for each particular cell. Each speaker box then can be EQ' ed and volume adjusted to provide proper sound for the humans in it's coverage pattern. With this type of system setup, the overlaps between the box to box coverage patterns is crucial and of much concern. The goal and challenge of the system designer and tech setting up the system is to achieve seamless sonic transitions between the cells, which is no easy task. Another challenge with a cellular coverage sound systems is attempting to adequately cover areas at extended distances.

The second concept of coverage I will refer to as summed or combined. Summed coverage is the attempt to get multiple speakers to add together and act as a single larger speaker. The coverage pattern of this giant speaker would then be adjusted to cover the room by varying the angles between the boxes much the same way as the cellular approach. The big challenge with the summed approach is getting perfect cooperation between the various speakers, typically by getting them the speakers close enough together in order to minimize them acting as separate sources. Sub woofer arrays are almost always implemented in a summed array.

The key difference between the two methods is that cellular approach is based on minimizing the overlap between the coverage patterns and the summed approach relies on overlapping so well that they act as single large source. Well designed versions of both approaches try to avoid having a listener hear two acoustically separate sources that are in close proximity to each other that are also not equidistant from the listener. Why, you ask? Well, mainly because non-equidistant sound sources tend to sound bad and creates comb-filtering that reduces output levels and screws up the frequency response.

Sound, like everything else in life, is never black and white and exists only in varying levels of gray and the reality is that all real world concert sound systems exhibit varying degrees of both approaches. High frequencies are naturally beamy and lean toward zonal coverage and the low frequencies inherently tend toward combined coverage. The techniques that sound system designers implement to push the various sound systems toward zonal or or summed coverage patterns is quite interesting and ultimately a key factor in the clarity and sonic consistency of the system created. Just for good measure, I will give a few examples of common systems and my perception of the design approach behind their creation. Nexo's Alpha system, ElectroVoice's X-Array and Turbosound's Flashlight and Aspect systems are all excellent examples of zonal systems. Much effort was put into those designs in order to achieve distinct and consistent vertical and horizontal coverage projected from each individual box. The building block for these zonal systems is usually a relatively few speakers in each box that are mounted on some sort of horn to assist with pattern control. The boxes are then aimed to optimizes covering the acoustic space while minimizing sonic overlaps.

The summed-output system approach, until recently was considerably less wide spread with the Clair Bros S-4 system, the Rat Trap 5 and to some degree perhaps the Showco Prism systems being recognizable examples* . These systems tended to rely on boxes with quite a few speakers in each box that are in relatively close proximity to each other allowing them to unify their outputs and allow multiple boxes to begin to act as a single giant speaker. These systems inherently by design have overlapping coverage from multiple drivers even within each individual box. An issue with these systems is created by the physical spaces between the speakers themselves that cause the components to act like multiple sources creating box to box overlaps and comb filtering and inconsistencies in coverage patterns.

Then in the mid 90's along comes the V-Dosc line array, a fully summed-output approach sound system that for the first time on a major scale, incorporated the high frequency component in the summing. Line arrays are not new, the old Shure Vocal master with a stack of 10" speakers inside is a old example. Take a close look at a Clair S-4 and you can see that the 18"s and 10"s form vertical line arrays when stacked and check out the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound which had vertical line arrays for nearly every instrument.

So getting back to the original question of "Are line arrays truly better and here to stay or just the latest fad?" Let's take a look at couple of things that make line arrays an interesting and useful implementation of the summed approach. Though I have heard it described different ways and even read various manufactures' press releases arguing about 'who describes it correctly,' for all practical purposes they are all saying that a well designed line array system offers improved volume level consistency vs distance when compared to a zonal type coverage system. Now whether you prefer to envision it in the 'cylindrical waveform' description offered by the folks at L'Acoustics or you just think of it of "as you get farther away the sound naturally gets quieter but since there are a higher quantity of equidistant speakers pointed at you so the volume drop with distance is somewhat counteracted." The fact that a line array system can be set up to project sound over short or long distances merely by altering the angles between the boxes is quite useful.

Another feature that the slender line array systems offer is their narrow profile is quite easily intermingled with the exceedingly growing stage sets. People want to see what people want to see and it tends not to be the sound system, except for a few of us, and having the ability to slide a large scale system into the small gap between a few video walls or set pieces is a strong asset. Plus, the relatively simple two dimensional rigging that only deals with vertical adjustments not only allows for a high degree of predictability, it also is fairly easy to get motor points for hanging in most venues. The fact that line arrays are simple, practical and predictable gives them a real world implementation advantage over systems the require multiple precisely spaced motor points to provide proper venue coverage.

But you know what, even with all those useful and apparent assets, none of them truly give line arrays a hands down advantage. Zonal systems can deal with volume consistency over distance by implementing long throw boxes and utilizing volume shading to compensate and project louder sound to the far away areas. Compact high volume zonal systems can be incorporated into well thought out set designs and even be flown behind new modern video walls that allow sound to pass through. Well designed rigging systems that allow zonal PA's to be flown and rotated and adjusted are and perhaps someday even by remote control, either in existence or not far off. Finally, sonic prediction software is not unique to line arrays and the realty is that the playing field is fairly even from a technical standpoint, except for one thing and it has nothing to do with the sound system or it the cleverness of its designer.

That thing is us. We are humans and like many critters that run around this planet here we have ears and also like many critters, our ears are on the sides of head. The physical and biological placement of our hearing devices allows us an extremely astute and accurate ability to discern the precise horizontal positioning of sound sources and the approximate vertical positioning of sound sources. Does it not make sense that a two legged walker of a human would require an increased sensitivity in auditory perception in the horizontal plane where most of the food to hunt for and predators hunting us would exist? Even our necks are designed with a limited vertical range of motion and a much wider horizontal rotation and at any given moment we are turing our heads or bodies sweeping the horizontal auditory plane. We enjoy things in stereo, we place the stereo speakers spaced apart horizontally to maximize the effect, have you ever seen heard or wondered why stereo speakers are not placed vertically? In some apartments and houses it would sure make sense logistically. Have you ever tried to stack a line array on it's side? It is quite interesting as it typically does not sound very good. For those of you pondering in your mind about L'Acoustics ARC's, Kudo's and other manufacturers horizontally arrayable products, take a close look and you will find that there are strict angles between boxes when horizontally arrayed that minimizes overlaps in HF coverage and they are set to merge the coverage patterns. Hey, wait a minute, isn't that a zonal system? Exactly, and for many applications zonal systems are optimum but when you need to focus a tremendous amount of sonic energy in a particular direction, there are distinct advantages to forming a giant and controllable unified sound source vs a cluster of tiny separate and directional sound sources.

So here is the deal as I see it. With current loud speaker technology it is necessary to utilize multiple speakers in order to cover a large venues, as no one makes a single loud speaker that is loud enough, sounds great and is versatile enough to cover 10's of thousands of people in a wide range of venues. These multiple speakers need to be arranged in some sort of configuration vertically, horizontally, both or maybe someday one behind the other. Currently, we can get speakers to sum together quite well but not perfectly. Our ears are very sensitive to those imperfections in the horizontal domain and our ears are considerably less sensitive to those same imperfections in the vertical domain. Therefore, the true design advantage that line array's posses is that they take advantage of the human deficiencies in vertical hearing by keeping the currently unavoidable imperfections in the plane where we are least likely to perceive them and provide little or no component to component imperfections where our hearing is most sensitive. In other words, it is all about offering the human listening ear a single source in the horizontal domain which a line array does by design and a horizontally splayed zonal system struggles to achieve. Combine that with the fact that they hang nicely like a string of beads and I will venture to say that line arrays may just be a bit more than the latest fad and more likely a structural building block to the sonic future of large scale sound systems.

* The actual components and configuration of Showco's Prism system is kept 'secret,' so it is my opinion based on mixing on the system and it's sonic characteristics that lead me to believe that it is based on a summed-output type design.

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

The done being nerdy for a bit,

Dave Rat

Day 215 & 216- Dec 24 & 25 - Big Bear Lake, CA

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 17:10:33 -0800

Hey, it's Christmas Day! For many people on the this planet, today is a special day and for many it is not. I find the holidays to be an interesting conflict. I love the happiness that people share and I dislike that people utilize the festivities to propagate their belief systems on to others. My dad was raised as an Orthodox Jew. My mother was raised as a Southern Baptist, two quite extreme and opposing viewpoints. Growing up I was faced with some interesting realities. My parents were two people with conflicting belief systems yet I love and trust them both. Trees with bad apples and big boats with an earth load of critters and seas spreading apart and babies that just come. As time went on I noticed that it was so strange that there seemed to be so many arguments in the world around me based on things that I have never seen nor had any logical indication that I would ever see happen. In fact, a lot of these things seemed a heck of a lot less plausible that the things I saw in movies that people readily would laugh at me if I showed any sign of believing to be true. How come an ocean can spread apart and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can't really fly? Airplanes do it! Something is fishy. So today I will share a bit of what I think goes on.

**** Dave Rat History of Religion ****

A long long time ago a bunch of humans are all running around and some Abraham guy is cruising around in the desert and he sleeps with this one chick and she ends up being super grandma to this Jesus guy. Eventually a bunch of humans start rocking out and saying this Jesus dude is the best rapper in the world and so damn good that he is part of the rock show of God. Meanwhile there are a bunch of humans that call themselves Jews that are big into the solo God thing and are not buying in to a new dude joining in. The Christians are all about, "Hey, come on Jew people, check him out, he the one" Jews say "Cool guy but, hey, "hello!, he aint the magic man, and we aint rap fans anyhoo, the God guy is a solo artist." This is where it gets interesting. It turns out that this Abraham guy was a bit of a player with some super sperm and he had gone out and partied with this other chick and she got knocked up and her super grand kid is none other than this Mohammed guy that shows up like centuries later. Turns out that he is also a rapper and builds up a huge fan base that call themselves Muslims. All the Christians are like "Hello, just another rapper but not the OG that we rock to." The Muslims are all like "Y'all are crazy, Mohammed is the Man and he supercedes your outdated old school Jesus' beats and rhymes." Meanwhile the Jews are like "What in the heck are are y'all talking about? They is just dude's and neither of them rock with God." So they all beat the crap out of the Jews and then started kicking each other's asses ever since.

**** End Dave Rat History of Religion ****

It seemed I had somehow been born into an unsolvable situation and refusal to take sides with one against the other, I did much pondering. What if they are both right? Does one have to be wrong? Can multiple conflicting perceptions be simultaneously correct? Is there truly anything that is right or wrong? Hmmmm, here is snippet of the confusion that roams my mind from what I've distilled from the ponderings

The people that are the most wrong, get the most angry. What better way to be right than to fight?

Almost all religions believe the same basic life guiding bits and they just argue about the details. I try and live my life by finding the threads common to all religions and skipping the arguments. Arguments are boring anyway.

Religions are like living entities. Like all other forms of life there is an inherent desire to perpetuate and reproduce and populate. Though most religions may be warm and fuzzy on the outside, they still make a lot of poop and will bite you if you mess with them.

Religious pre schools are often cheap or free as it is a good way to increase membership by recruiting small minds.

All books are words, not truths, nothing ever is truly true in the purest sense of the word, there are just things that less or more people agree with. For something to be truly and perfectly true, everyone would universally agree on it. Try and find something that everyone on the planet agrees on. And that brings to mind...

Never under estimate the ability of human beings to believe the most incredibly absurd and zany things, even if everything in life and survival points to the contrary.

Faith is what humans call 'believing the unbelievable,' sometimes it works out and amazing things happen and it can bring people together for celebrations of common happiness and sometimes in the words of Borat "Not so so much" and faith brings wars and death and hatred and a bunch of human critters spend their lives killing each other rather than eating food and making cool things and hanging out with their little people.

When groups of human minds all focus in harmony in a particular direction, it is an incredible, powerful and real sensation. It is such a powerful, real and amazing feeling that humans have decided to sell and market in many forms. Religions sell it in the form of prayer, rock shows sell it in the form of concerts, motivational speakers sell it in the form of inspirational gatherings and sporting events, well we know how exciting they can be by how well they attract humans en masse. Whether you chose to pay for it or join an orginzation like a religion that gathers to share the sensation, it is important to know that the sensation is natural and free and can be created without cost or strings attached.

Finally, no one really knows the answers or what will happen next, be very very suspicious of anyone that claims to know.

So here we are in the season where nearly every religion on the planet is plugging their holiday into the winter solstice and branding the dinner and family gatherings we share with the strings of their own perpetuation. And to me, it is all good and a beautiful, magic and wonderful thing to see all of us humans clustering and drawn together by love and wrapped in celebrations of life. Strings or not I wish Happy Holidays to all, regardless the your belief system that you have chosen to guide your life. To us and all our friends and everyone else whom with we share this planet. Here is a holiday cheers to warm people. To people that do their best to navigate through life in a positive way and even though we screw some things up. Here is to people that care but do not care so much that it ruins their happiness. Here is to people that strive to succeed but do not fall into the predatory weakness of stepping on others to do so. Happy Holidays! And in the words of The Barfly "Drinks for All My Friends!" Whatever drink that it is that you chose to be drinking.

The hoping I am 'not so much' boring,

Dave Rat